[screams] SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
The history that we were all taught growing up is wrong. My name is Scott Wolter, and
I'm a forensic geologist. There's a hidden
history in this country that nobody knows about. There are pyramids here,
chambers, tombs, inscriptions, they're all over this country. We're going to investigate
these artifacts and sites, and we're going to
get to the truth. Sometimes history isn't
what we've been told. [theme music] [music playing, phone ringing] SCOTT WOLTER (ON RECORDING):
This is Scott Wolter. I'm on vacation this week. Leave a message and I'll
call you when I get back. [music playing] Look at grant. He's fallen like five times. [chuckles] It looks fun though. I might go out there in a
little bit and give it a try. I can do that. JANET WOLTER:
Well, I don't know. Excuse me, have you
seen any of these? SCOTT WOLTER: Oh,
um, no, I haven't. Jan, have you seen
anything like that? You know, I think I
have, over that way. SCOTT WOLTER: Oh.
- Thanks. Thank you. See you guys. Hmm, I think I'm going
to get another drink. You want something? Nope, I'm good. SCOTT WOLTER: All right,
I'll be back in a little bit. [music playing] SCOTT WOLTER
(VOICEOVER): My family and I are on vacation at
Aulani, a Disney resort and spa, one of our favorite
places to visit. There's no better place
to sit back and relax. But as my family would
be the first to tell you, that can be hard for me to do. Even on vacation, it
seems like I always come across some intriguing
aspect of American history yet to be explored. [music playing] Hi. Could I get a lilikoi, please. [music playing] Excuse me, do you know what the
deal is with these little elves up here? You know, those
actually aren't elves. They're Menehune. They're mythical
little people known to inhabited the Hawaiian
islands before the Hawaiians arrived here. Some kids came up and showed
me a little interactive game with these elves or Menehune. TODD: The game is a Menehune
adventure trail for the kids or the family to go
learn about the Menehune throughout the resort. Back when the idea of Aulani
started, when Disney started this idea, they said we wanted
to tell the true stories of Hawaii. And so, they went out and
did years of research, and the story of the Menehune
was just so intriguing, we realized that
it was something we wanted to make sure that
our guests got to learn about. SCOTT WOLTER: So the Menehune,
this is mythical legend, right? Well, the Hawaiian
culture, you know, it's a complex culture. There was the gods, the
Ali'i, or the royalty, and then the Maka'ainana,
the common people who worked the land, and
fished, and farmed. And that's always
one of the questions. Well, where did the Menehune
fit within those classes, and where do they fit
within the Hawaiian culture. I just want to
clarify one thing. You're saying that these
Menehune people, they're real? You know, it's interesting. There's myths, there's
legends, but there's a lot of physical
structures that are attributed to the Menehune.
- Here in Hawaii? Here in Hawaii, especially
on the island of Kauai, but throughout the state. [music playing] There's over 200 of these
many going around the resort. I'd be glad to show you around
if you wanna take a look. Well, you have me intrigued,
so I'd love to learn more. [music playing] TODD: This is actually part of
the Menehune Adventure Trail, that game that we talked about. So as the story goes, the
Menehune were a little people, so maybe 2 or 3 feet tall. They lived up in the
forest, up in the highlands. And they only came out at
night, so you never saw them. They probably inhabited these
islands before the Hawaiians arrived here. What evidence do
we have for this? You look at some
of the stories throughout the Pacific
Islands, in places like Tahiti and the Marquesas,
have similar stories about an ancient civilization,
an ancient people that were called the Menehune. So as you put those
things together, you start to see
there's some evidence. These myths may be true. So really you've got
a couple of options. One is the Menehune could
have been the first people to inhabit Hawaii, or they
could be these little people that you've talked about. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's both. And there's one of them hiding
in the bushes, right there. [chuckles] They're hiding
everywhere, right? That's why they're here. SCOTT WOLTER: Todd,
I'm a little skeptical. I'm a geologist, so I
need some hard evidence. There's a number of these
ancient, very unique walls, temples, waterways. And the stories are that those
were built by the Menehune. Looking at these stone
walls and structures, there's a possibility I
could put a timeline on it. Maybe they do go back to the
time of these Menehune people. The thing you got
to remember also, is that the Hawaiian
culture was an oral culture. So there's no written history. You have to rely on
those oral histories to tell you the
truth about the past. For many cultures that have
rich and deep oral histories, and they're all based
in at least some fact, so I'm willing to
go along with that. However, I'm really struggling
with this whole Hawaiian Hobbit thing. I'll tell, the
Menehunes are not Hobbits, but hobbits are real. I've seen them at the
University of Hawaii. usic ] SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
While on vacation in Hawaii, I stumbled across legends
of a tiny race of people once thought to inhabit
the Hawaiian islands. They built large
rock structures, and that's something
I want to investigate. The Menehune were said to have
been about 2 to 3 feet tall, and to have lived in the forest. Far beyond the stories
of these little people is a Hawaiian history
steeped in legend and lore. [beeping] Hawaii, the northernmost
outpost of the region known as Polynesia, became
a state in 1959. By then, the island's population
had already been thriving for hundreds of years. Their society was governed
by a monarchy, of which, King Kamehameha was the
most well-known ruler. The Hawaiian people's
legends were passed down over time that spoke of gods,
goddesses, and Menehune, and were similar to legends
in other parts of Polynesia. [music playing] I think that often in
legend, there is truth. And I want to know, were
these Menehune real? While my family is
back at the hotel, I'm headed to find out
what the so-called Hobbits at the University of Hawaii
have to do with this mystery. [music playing] SCOTT WOLTER: Hi, Mike. Scott Wolter. Hi. Nice to meet you. So I'm investigating the
legends of the Menehune people here in Hawaii, and I was
told that you have evidence of little people,
or Hobbits, here at the University of Hawaii. Is that true? What we do have here is a
cast of one of the so-called Hobbit's skulls from the
island of Flores in Indonesia. And the scientific name for this
specimen is Homo floresiensis. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER): The
term Homo floresiensis refers to an extinct group of people
who were just 3 and 1/2 feet tall, they had big feet, just
like the Hobbits in Tolkien's famous novels, and have been
found only in Indonesia, where their skeletal
remains turned up in 2003. The question is, could they
have left Indonesia and made it to Hawaii where they
came to be known by another name, the Menehune? SCOTT WOLTER: That's
a small skull. Is this a normal skull here? MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY: Yes. SCOTT WOLTER: All right. That's half the size. MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY:
It's one third the size. SCOTT WOLTER: One third. MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY:
Right here we have sort of an artistic
recreation of one of these floresiensis
specimens, and you can see that the arm actually
extends quite well down the leg. Perhaps a little
lower than the knees. SCOTT WOLTER: Well, how
do we know that this isn't a juvenile or a child? MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY: It's
quite interesting you ask that, because the
original discoverer, his first impression was that
it was, in fact, a child. But if you look at it more
closely, compared with that of a six-year-old child,
this is a child's skull, and with baby teeth, two molars,
canine, and two incisors. Adult teeth, you can
see are quite different. They have three molars
and two pre-molars, which are completely
lacking in the child skull. So for reasons, it has
the typical adult teeth, so no question that
this is an adult. SCOTT WOLTER: So there's
no question about it? MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY: Yeah.
SCOTT WOLTER: It's very obvious. MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY: Right. SCOTT WOLTER: OK, so we're
talking about Indonesia here. We're talking about a
race of small people. What would be their most recent
time that we know they existed? They were around up until
13,000 to 12,000 years ago, and then they disappear. Perhaps a volcanic
eruption occurred and that wiped them out. And after that point in time,
only anatomically modern humans, like
ourselves, are found in that part of the world.
- OK. MICHAEL PIETRUSEWSKY: That
same eruption also wiped out quite a few other fauna
and animal species, including the dwarf
elephant species, et cetera, that were also
found on this island. Small elephants. Right. SCOTT WOLTER: Is there
something going on here with this small group of
creatures living on this island environment? What's happening there? Well, It's not unprecedented
to have dwarfing of species when they're on perhaps a
situation environment where there's less food,
less resources. So the optimum to survive
is to get smaller. So we have Hobbit people
and Hobbit elephants? Right. SCOTT WOLTER: So would
we call this human, or is it a different species? Ah, well, that's
a big question, because there are a number of
researchers who have looked at this material and they
have suggested that it might be a dwarf species of humans. On the other hand, other people
have suggested that it might have suffered from some sort
of a disease, which could have been genetic in origin. This is new ground as far
as evolutionary studies, is it not? Well, it really does throw a
wrench into the whole picture about how evolution was
explained up until this time. So this is a pretty
controversial skull we're holding. Yeah, extremely controversial. SCOTT WOLTER: Looking
at the little people you're talking about
here in Indonesia, is it possible that they
may have come from Indonesia here to the Hawaiian islands? And if so, who they have
encountered, and what do you think might have happened? Well, I would
say, first they'd have to get out of Indonesia. They'd have to have
sophisticated technology and navigation skills. Have you found any small bones
here in the Hawaiian islands. Yes, but they belong
to children and infants. Certainly, we haven't found
any small adult bones. Quite the opposite. The prehistoric Hawaiians
and Polynesians, in general, were quite tall by even
modern day standards. Do you think there could
be any truth to the myths and legends of the
Menehune people? There could be. Uh, leave open the door
for that possibility. Until they find
physical evidence, I guess I'm going to
have to be a skeptic on this particular
point, you know? Fair enough. [music playing] JANET WOLTER (ON PHONE): Hello. Hi, Janey.
How you doing? JANET WOLTER (ON PHONE): Good.
Good. How's the search for the
mythical creature going? SCOTT WOLTER: Well,
it's going pretty well. I learned that there was an
ancient race of little people that lived in Indonesia
about 12,000 years ago. Unfortunately, they haven't
found any bones or remains of these little people
in the Hawaiian islands. JANET WOLTER (ON PHONE):
Uh, I found something interesting in our guide book. Apparently, the Menehune
were responsible for building a really big waterway
on an island at Kauai. It's called the Menehune Ditch. You know what? That must have been one of the
sites that Todd talked about. JANET WOLTER (ON
PHONE): Get this. It also says the island census
recorded 65 Menehune living on an island in 1820. 65 Menehune on Kauai? Pack your bags. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Hawaiian lore tells of an ancient group of little
people just 2 to 3 feet tall who lived in these
islands long ago. I found evidence that little
Hobbit-like creatures really did exist 12,000 years
ago in Indonesia. They completely
disappeared, which makes me wonder if they came
to Hawaii after being wiped out by a giant volcanic eruption. [music playing] Of all the Hawaiian
islands, Kauai is the one with the
most physical evidence that the Menehune existed. It turns out, the top of
a massive stone ditch, built by the Menehune,
is still visible. I brought my family along
to help me examine it. So how do you know so
much about the Menehune. I was working on the Napali
Coast training tour guides, and I ran across
stories of the Menehune, and I just decided
to find out more. SCOTT WOLTER: And how did you
learn about the ditch here? SIDNEE WHEELWRIGHT: Well,
the ditch is pretty famous. It's the one structure that you
can point at and touch and say, the Menehune built this. [beeps] The Menehune Ditch is
known locally as Kikiaola. That means wall of Ola. And Ola was an Ali'i, or
a king, in early Hawaii. It was built to bring water
around the cliff for the people of Ola, so that they could
irrigate their fields. When was it first documented? Well, the first written
record of the ditch was back in 1790's when Captain
Cook and his crew were here. And they recorded it as being
24 feet high, and quite long. They never did get
to the end of it. SCOTT WOLTER: So the
Menehune built this? SIDNEE WHEELWRIGHT: That's
all we see that's left. SCOTT WOLTER: Do
we know for sure? Are these pieces
are still original? As far as anyone
has been able to tell. SCOTT WOLTER: OK. SIDNEE WHEELWRIGHT:
These are original. Well, whoever built this, and
this is very skilled masonry work, the edges are
nice and square. The corners, they're--
they're tight joints. They've even notched some of
the pieces, like this one right here. AMANDA WOLTER: You mean this
notched part right here, down here?
SCOTT WOLTER: Yep. Yeah. This particular type
of masonry construction is called dry stacking. They didn't use a mortar to
hold the joints together. They just cut it tight enough
and perfect so that everything fit together, so
it basically became an interlocking single unit. SIDNEE WHEELWRIGHT:
According to the legend, the Menehune built
this in one night. There were thousands of them,
and they passed the stones from 7 miles away,
hand-to-hand down the mountain. One night? One night. OK, well, I can certainly
appreciate and respect local legends and myths, but
if this was 24 feet tall, and all this is hand cut stone,
and it came from 7 miles away, I think that's a stretch. When I look at these rocks, and
then when I look at the rocks here, these lava flows,
that's vesicular basalt, this is the vesicular
basalt, why would you carry these stones 7
miles hand-to-hand. And these are huge blocks. I mean look at these things. They weigh hundreds
of pounds apiece. What I'd like to do is take
a closer look at the stone itself. Hey, Grant, why don't you to
take some measurements of some of the stones. Jan, do you mind
taking some pictures. [music playing] Throwing on my microscope here. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
It seems crazy to me that anyone, small or big, would
haul huge boulders for miles to build a wall that's made of
the same material that appears to be right in front of them. Even though these rocks look the
same, I need to know for sure. By examining this
rock, I should be able to determine
if the rock that's part of this volcanic deposit
is the same as the rock used for the wall. Hey, Grant. [music playing] You see the little gas bubbles
all peppered through it. GRANT: Uh-huh. SCOTT WOLTER: As
the lava flows out, it generates these gas bubbles
of water vapor and carbon dioxide, and they
rise like carbonation does in a glass of pop or beer. Those are vesicles. And when I was looking
up here at this rock, it's the same thing. I mean, you can even see
him from here, peppered with those little vesicles. It's the exact same rock as this. SIDNESS WHEELWRIGHT:
Hey, Dan, how do you think they got them, like,
cut so square like that? Well, they had
to have used tools, and they were very skilled. I don't know if they
had metal tools or not, but maybe they forged
some metal tools. SIDNESS WHEELWRIGHT:
Based on what we've found is that they didn't have
metal tools in that day. We know that for sure. They had rock cutting
tools made of rock. That impresses me even more
if they're using stone tools. That's a lot of work, but,
boy, they sure did a good job. I can certainly respect
the local legends, the whole seven-mile bringing
the stone from a quarry there. As a scientist, that just
doesn't make sense to me. It makes more sense that
the rock is right here. It's the same in the
wall as it is here. I got to go with they
used the local rock. That's what I think. Well, there may be some
basis to why this story says that they were carried
from seven miles away. OK 'Cause the Menehune people
were the stone masons at that time. OK. And the quarry, what they
looked out of traditionally is-- look at the mountains
about seven miles away, so then they would make sense
that they would want to build the wall from the stones
from their own quarry. Well, that's possible, and
if you look at sacred sites like Stonehenge, for
example, the stones used to build it came
from tens of miles away. They did it because
these were sacred places. So if that's the case,
that's interesting, and I can appreciate that. What can you tell me about Chief
Ola who commissioned this wall to be built? SIDNESS WHEELWRIGHT:
Well, pretty much doing genealogical
studies have established that he's lived around 1280 AD
and that he was a real person, and he also commissioned
other works, not just the wall but other works in this area. Sydney, in thinking about this
legend of the Menehune building this wall at night,
a single night, could it mean that they
were talking about at night as opposed to one night? It's got to be 90
here today, and it's like this probably
almost every day. And so working at night,
that might make sense, so maybe that's what
it really means. SIDNESS WHEELWRIGHT: I think
you've got a point there. There's probably a
good case to be made. And this idea that
they were little people, I'm struggling with that as
well because these blocks, some of them are several
pounds apiece and two- to three-foot tall people, I
don't see them handling them at all like that. SIDNESS WHEELWRIGHT: There
is another theory about that. Menehune is similar to
the [inaudible] Polynesian term that means lower class. So really what
we're talking about is not so much the
little people's stature but their status. Yes, the Tahitians, they
think they came over to Hawaii in about 1200 AD. OK. Which is about the same time
as Chief Ola was doing all of these works in this area. And so it kind of fits that
they would have applied the name Menehune to these
working people. You know, one of the things
that I learned here just the other day was that there
was a race of little people that lived in Indonesia that
were about 3 and 1/2 feet tall. But the idea that they
would get all the way to the Hawaiian islands
and be the Menehune people, they haven't found any bones or
any other remains that indicate that they did get here. So the idea that it's
not a stature thing but a status thing
really does fit together. Are there any other sites
where I could possibly see more examples of stonework
by the Menehune people? Well, I'm not sure if
it's the Menehune people, but along the Na Pali
coast in Nu'alolo Kai. There's a lot of
stonework there. You might want to
check that out. There's no question
that the Hawaiian people have a rich history and
culture and legends, and I'm not leaving
these islands until I get to the truth behind
these mythical little people. I stumbled across evidence of
an ancient race of little people called the Menehune while
on vacation in Hawaii. Legend says the Menehune are
responsible for building some of the oldest and most
unique rock sites here. And I'm kind of
starting to believe it. As the legend goes, they
only worked at night, building these
massive structures for things like irrigation
and fish farming. Their only rule was that no
one could watch them work. If anyone saw them
working, the Menehune would abandon the site. Whether or not they
were small in size or small in terms of class,
I'm still not so sure. I'm on my way to
the Na Pali coast to look for more clues
to who these people were. But Hawaiians take
their legends seriously, so if I'm going to figure
out if there's truth behind this mystery, which is
embedded deep in their culture, I'm going to have to
immerse myself in it. Hi, I'm Scott Wolter. Aloha, Scott. I'm Sabra. Hello, I'm Keao. Oh. Oh, nice to meet you. I'm here investigating the
ancient little people called the Menehune, and I just
recently toured the Menehune ditch. I saw very interesting styles of
ancient construction that could possibly be related
to these people, so I'd like to learn more about
the Polynesians and their work. We'd like to take you out
to Nu'alolo Kai on the Na Pali coast. OK. Nu'alolo Kai is a very
important cultural center for the entire island. So we know that it was lived
in, that it was a pretty good sized population
there but not so sure they were particularly
the Menehune. We're still looking
into the function, the uses of the place. What we do know is that it's
a place of a lot of mana. Mana. What is mana? Mana is that energy
that we have inside of us, and then when there's a lot of
human activity in the place, it's what we leave behind. This place sounds amazing. Should we shove off? Yep. No way. Is that what I think it is? Yes, it is. Is that an X? Normally when I've studied
X carvings in the past, it's been connected
to Templar symbolism. Since there is no evidence
that the Templars ever made it to the Pacific, this
X may mark the spot of something completely
different but also important. SABRA KUAKA: Our legends
tell us of many migrations through these islands
from the South Pacific, and among some of the
most famous legends is the legend of Pele. Pele was the goddess of the
volcano, the goddess of fire. But when Pele landed here, she
marked this place with an X. That is our legend. SCOTT WOLTER: X marks
the spot right here. SABRA KUAKA: That's it. SCOTT WOLTER: What
I see here is Pele did a wonderful job with
the geology causing two different fractures in
this pile of volcanic rock and sediments to
fracture in this X form and then fill with lava. And if you look
in the middle, you can tell which one came first
and which one came second. The one that goes from the
upper left to the lower right came first, and then the
one from the lower left to the upper right came next. SABRA KUAKA: Can you just
imagine the incredible forces of nature that would have
caused that to fracture? And it would be
probably earthquakes that caused that fracture to
open up, so maybe Pele was upset about something. SABRA KUAKA: She was always said
to have a very fiery nature. SCOTT WOLTER: This
is a great spot. No question. KEAO NESMITH: Let's
go over this way. I'll show you some of
the walls over here. Great. Now this is not an old
historic structure. This has been restored, correct? SABRA KUAKA: Mmm hmm. KEAO NESMITH: Yeah, we
restored this in 2007. There have been two
tsunamis that washed away most of these rocks, and
when we came across it, there were only the foundation
stones that were there. Most of this was knocked over. SCOTT WOLTER: Well this
is different than what I saw at the Menehune ditch. You have multiple
rock types here. KEAO NESMITH: There
are cultural reasons for the mix in rock type. We call this type of stone
[non-english speech].. This is called
[non-english speech].. This is a product
of the ocean, which is a representation of
Kanaloa, the god of the ocean. And this would be a
representation of Kane, who is another god, and
he's represented in rock form, basalt rock. But what's unique about this
here in the Hawaiian islands is that you don't really
see this kind of structure or this type of architecture
with the stand up sandstone. That's really reflective of
the type of architecture that's done in the South Pacific. Places like around Tahiti,
Marquesas, Tuamotu Islands. These are different elements of
different cultures from Eastern Polynesia. SCOTT WOLTER: So they
brought that here? That technology. OK. KEAO NESMITH: Yes. SCOTT WOLTER: So how
far back to these date? KEAO NESMITH: Probably
as much as 700 years ago. SCOTT WOLTER: So
my understanding is that the Polynesians
arrived in the Hawaiian islands around 1200 or so AD. Do you think that there were
people here when they arrived that go back much further? It's very possible that
there could have been. Many of our stories tell about
a people who were shorter in stature and arrived earlier. SCOTT WOLTER: If people
brought this rock technology from as far away as Eastern
Polynesia roughly 3,000 miles away. I wonder if the
hobbits from Indonesia could have traveled the 6,000
miles from Flores Island to Hawaii. Some of the legends say the
Menehune were already here when the first Polynesian
voyagers got here around 1200 AD. Oral histories
support that legend. Oral histories also suggest
the Menehune were little, but I'm still not
sure if they were small in stature or status. I recently learned that in
the late 1800s, the census for Hawaii, there were a few
dozen people who actually claimed to be Menehune. Were the Menehune real? KEAO NESMITH: Yes, we have too
many stories about the Menehune that describe them in great
detail to think otherwise. They had their own
ali'i, their own kings. They had their
own professionals. The Menehune were a
race to themselves. We know about them
in much more detail because there is much more
engagement between them and us Kanaka from
way back when. It seems that around
100 years ago, people started to write about them,
and it was that time when Hawaii was becoming really
romanticized to the world. And so there are these
dreamy characters that were written about
were like fairies that lived in the forest. SABRA KUAKA: I think a legend
begins with an element of truth in it, and over the
years, it's enlarged. But I think there is an
element of truth in the belief that there were Menehune
here in these islands. This is pretty
extensive stone complex. KEAO NESMITH: This area has
references to ceremonies having to do with
dedication of canoes before they get launched
out for long voyages. SCOTT WOLTER: How did
they make those trips? What did they use to navigate? SABRA KUAKA: Well,
I think in order to understand
Polynesian navigation, you need to go to Kaho'olawe. Has anyone ever found
evidence of the Menehune there? I don't know,
but archaeologists have found over 500 sites
of cultural importance on that island alone. But I thought that
island was off limits. They used it as a bombing
target for decades right? Oh, yes, they did, and there
are still many unexploded bombs there on the island
and in the ocean. So you have to be very careful. We may be able to get
you on a boat there, but you might have to
swim in part of the way. That's OK with me. My family vacation has
turned into a quest to uncover the truth behind
the legend of the Menehune in Hawaii. I've been given special
access to Kaho'olawe, a sacred cultural site
that for many years was used as a bombing
range for the US military. No one has ever looked for
evidence of the Menehune there, but if any evidence
exists, I want to find it. And I'm going to get
there any way I can. When I first heard the legend
of the Menehune, a supposed race of tiny people who built
things for the Hawaiian elite under the cover of darkness, I
thought it sounded far fetched. But what I have learned
on my Hawaiian vacation turned investigation is
that the Menehune were real, and that part of
the legend is true. I've learned they might be small
in size or small in status. Either way, there's no question
in my mind they did exist. But I want to know
how they got here. And the final clue I need might
be on the island of Kaho'olawe. Kaho'olawe has had a
long difficult past. Once a culturally sacred site,
years of ranching in the 1800s decimated much of the
vegetation on the island. It was used as a
bombing test site after Japanese forces
attacked Pearl Harbor, launching the United
States into World War II. It continued to be a military
training site for the next 50 years. Today many unexploded
bombs remain on the island, and in the process
of restoring it, people are discovering ancient
sites never before seen. So I understand you've
done a lot of work with the archaeology here
and the cultural studies on the island.
- I did. Tell me about that. Since 1990, my family was
involved with being here with the Protect the [inaudible]. We're very passionate
about stopping the bombing, and at that time
the bombing wasn't-- it was still going on. Still going on. KALEI NU'UHIWA: So the
island was bombed since 1939. SCOTT WOLTER: Do you
remember the bombs? KALEI NU'UHIWA: Oh, I sure do. I grew up on the island of
Maui, and our houses would shake and our windows would rattle. At that time, nobody really
understood the impact of what was really
happening here on this island and its
importance to our culture. So what makes the island
so important, so sacred? This island was the
gateway for navigation. Lots of sites here are aligned
to the movements of the stars, the moon, and the
sun, and this is what navigators would come to
to basically learn about that. We're far enough south that we
can see the southern hemisphere stars from this area, and that
would train you to be prepared to go down south easily
and then also vice versa to come back up to be able
to return here to Hawaii. So in essence,
what you're saying is that this island was critical
for the ancient navigators. Extremely critical to be
able to leave and return. SCOTT WOLTER: I've learned an
awful lot about the Menehune. KALEI NU'UHIWA: Most
people think of them as hairy little trolls
with the round bellies. In our culture, the Menehune
come with the migration of Pele, the volcano goddess. Pele brings with her the
[non-english speech],, who were given the task to
watch over children of gods or children of chiefs, and they
actually maintained things. They helped to build the
older ancient type of sites that we have here in Hawaii. That's what their function
was for us in our society. So you can see that it
followed that movement of that migration. SCOTT WOLTER: All
the ancient people who traveled to the
Hawaiian islands are said to have come
here to Kaho'olawe, and that would mean that
the Menehune came here, too. It's possible they came from the
island of Flores in Indonesia after they were driven out
by a volcanic eruption. Flores is where evidence
of little people with striking similarities to
the Menehune have been found. It's also possible they
came from somewhere else. From this island,
you can see almost the entire Hawaiian island chain
and into the sea far beyond. If the Menehune did
come from Indonesia, maybe this is where they
landed after being driven out thousands of years ago. Wow. Look at these islands. So this is where they brought
the navigators to teach them about long range
navigation, is that correct? KALEI NU'UHIWA: And if you
look across the vista here, we can see all of
the major peaks that are very important for those who
are navigating from the south up back to Hawaii. This is the spot that
you'd want to be. SCOTT WOLTER: From
this spot, you can see Lana'i, Moloka'i,
Maui, the big island of Hawaii, and on a very clear day
even the island of O'ahu. Just off the coast, you can also
see what is known as the road to Tahiti, an oceanic channel
that ancient Polynesian voyagers used to travel from
Tahiti to Hawaii and back. Well, this is amazing. Tell me about this place. This is our bell stone. It's got iron in it. And if you bring it
on the end there, there is actually a sound. You would use it to call. This would be an
ancient cell phone that you would use to dial in
to whomever it was that you were calling to do your ceremony. SCOTT WOLTER: So did
the Menehune come here, and if they did, did
they use the island also for navigation and observation? As of today, there's
really no stories to talk about that here. We've got lots of
research to do. It's not saying that
it doesn't exist. It still may be out
there, and we still need to find information. SCOTT WOLTER: One
thing I've learned in all my investigations is
that the absence of evidence doesn't mean that
evidence doesn't exist. It just means it
hasn't been found yet. Well, I'm not ready to say the
Menehune were 3 and 1/2 feet tall, were members of
a Hawaiian lower class, or descendants of the so-called
hobbits from Indonesia. I am ready to say
they were real. The Menehune are part
of too many stories and connected to too many
sites to think otherwise. I think it's just
a matter of time before hard evidence turns up,
offering more clues about who the Menehune really were. These ancient, long-range
trips across the ocean they really happened, and
they happened regularly. KALEI NU'UHIWA: Regularly and
repeatedly, more than once. Well, it is incredible. And I think I have a better
understanding of these Menehune people. They are part of
our history, and we descend from that history. The legends that we
have is the information that we need to restore some
of the ancient knowledge, and as we do that,
we can understand my ancestors a
lot better and how they saw the world around them. What you have
shown me here today convinces me that an
ancient race of people like the Menehune
could have made it here to the Hawaiian islands
thousands of years ago. Our Hawaiian vacation, which
started with fruity drinks on the beach, turned
out to be a lesson into the power of legend. The ancient Polynesians
used oral stories to record their amazing
history, and the Menehune were part of that history. There's no proof the so-called
hobbits from Indonesia traveled here and
became the Menehune, but the fact that such
a small race of people existed there proves it's
possible a small race of people could have lived here, too. I think the Menehune
were part of the united group of oceanic voyagers who
laid the foundation for what the Hawaiian culture is today. Their story confirms that there
is always some truth in legend. All of Polynesia is filled
with stories of amazing people navigating their way
toward new discoveries that we're just
beginning to understand. [theme music playing]
